Six Gifts of the Resurrection

Easter Sunday

Now if Christ is preached as raised from the dead, how
can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But
if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been
raised; if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in
vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be
misrepresenting God, because we testified of God that he raised
Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not
raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been
raised. If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you
are still in yoru sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in
Christ have perished. If for this life only we have hoped in
Christ, we are of all men most to be pitied. But in fact Christ has
been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have
fallen asleep.

I received a phone call this past week from a magazine asking me
to write a short article about how we should love God for who he is
and not for what he gives us. And I said, "I think I know what you
mean. It's like marriage: you shouldn't marry a woman for her
money. You should marry her for who she is, not for what she has.
So it is with God. We should love him for who he is, not for the
material benefits he may give."

"But I need to make clear," I said, "that you realize I don't
play down God's effort to satisfy my longings. I don't see a
conflict between a God who lives to glorify his worth and a God who
lives to satisfy my heart's desire. In fact the essence of my
theology," I said, "and the heartbeat of my ministry is this
sentence: God is most glorified in me when I am most satisfied in
him. Therefore, whenever I see him at work in the Bible to satisfy
my soul, I see him at work to glorify his name. To me the greatest
news in all the world is that God has designed a universe in which
God's God-centeredness is the foundation of my infinite joy."

Our Longings and the Centrality of Jesus

So they said I should go ahead and write the article. But the
reason I start with this is because it is so important for what I
see happening in this passage of Scripture, especially verses
12–20. I see Paul proclaiming the good news that the resurrection
of Jesus satisfies six of our deepest needs and longings. But in
doing this he is not putting us at the center. He is putting Jesus
as the center, and God who raised him from the dead.

My prayer for us this morning is that we would all feel these
six longings that I believe are rooted in every human heart, and
that you would see the risen and living Jesus as the answer to
those longings, and that in doing so you would be satisfied in him
and he would be glorified in you.

Now I didn't make up these longings or get them from any book.
They come straight out of this text. Let me try to show you how
they came clear to me.

"If Christ Has Not Been Raised . . . "

Paul says there are six things that would be in shambles if
Christ did not rise from the dead. Then verse 20 reverses the whole
paragraph: "But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead." So
let's look at those six things.

Verse 14: "If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching
is in vain." But since Christ has been raised, our preaching is not
in vain.

Verse 14: " . . . and your faith is in vain." But since
Christ has been raised, our faith is not in vain.

Verse 15: If Christ has not been raised, "we are found to be
misrepresenting God [literally: we are false witnesses], because we
testified of God that he raised Christ." But since Christ has been
raised, the apostles are not false witnesses about the work of God.

Verse 17: "If Christ has not been raised then your faith is
futile and you are still in your sins." But since Christ has been
raised, we are not still in our sins.

Verse 18: If Christ has not been raised, then "those who have
fallen asleep in Christ have perished." But since Christ has been
raised, the dead in Christ have not perished.

Verse 19: If Christ has not been raised, then "we are of all
men most to be pitied." But since Christ has been raised, we are
not to be pitied.

Stating the Negatives in Positive Terms

But what really made the lights go on for me, and what showed me
the good news that six of my deepest longings were being met here
by the resurrection of Jesus was when I tried to go back and
restate each of these six reversals in positive terms. So far we
have used negatives: "preaching not in vain . . . faith not in vain
. . . etc." Now we need to see what God has really done for us in
raising Jesus from the dead. We see this when we put all these
negatives into positives.

I'm going to switch the order around this time because when the
resurrection starts meeting our needs, there is a kind of pattern
that fits our experience. I want to follow that pattern as we look
at each of our longings being satisfied.

1. We Are Forgiven for Our Sins

First, from verse 17, instead of saying negatively that we
are not still in our sins, we can say positively that because of
the resurrection we are forgiven for our sins.

I put this first as the basic need and longing of our hearts
because if God holds our sins against us—and we all have
sinned!—then there is no hope of anything else from God. The
foundation for every other blessing from God is that God won't hold
our sins against us. Everything hangs on forgiveness.

How is the resurrection connected to our forgiveness? Isn't it
the death of Jesus that takes away our sin, because he bore our
sins and took our judgment (1 Corinthians 15:3)? Yes. But the connection
with the resurrection is very important. Romans 4:25 puts it like
this. "He was handed over [to death] on account of our
transgressions, and he was raised on account of our
justification."

This means that by his death he paid the penalty for our sins
and purchased our acquittal, our justification, our forgiveness.
And since the achievement of the cross was so complete and the work
of our justification so decisive, God raised Jesus from the dead to
validate our forgiveness and to vindicate his Son's righteousness
and to celebrate the work of justification.

Everybody in this room this morning needs forgiveness, and deep
inside, even when we don't think about it, we long for it. We long
to be accepted by God. We fear the alienation of our guilt. But
Paul says, because Christ rose from the dead, we are no longer in
our sins. This is the first and most basic longing of our
hearts.

2. Our Faith Is Well-Founded

Second, from verse 14, instead of saying negatively that our
faith is not in vain, we can say positively that because of the
resurrection our faith is well-founded. Or, to put it more
personally, because of the resurrection of Jesus there is someone
we can trust absolutely.

I believe that deep in the heart of every person is a longing
for someone that you can count on through thick and thin. Someone
who is absolutely trustworthy. Someone who, if you put your faith
in him, it won't be in vain. He won't let you down. He will always
be there. We want it because we were made for it. God put man and
woman in the garden of Eden to glorify God by trusting him for
everything they needed.

That need has never changed, in spite of sin. And now that we
are no longer in our sins, this longing too is satisfied by the
resurrection of Jesus. The death of Jesus proves his love for us,
and the resurrection proves his power over every enemy of life. And
so there is someone you can count on. Someone absolutely
trustworthy. Someone who will never let you down. Jesus is alive to
be trusted. "The life I live I live by faith in the Son of God who
loved me and gave himself for me" (Galatians 2:20).

3. The Apostles Preach What Is True

Third, from verse 15, instead of saying negatively that the
apostles are not false witnesses about the work of God, we can say
positively that because of the resurrection the apostles preach
what is true. They are not false witnesses about God. They are
true.

Our young people are being taught (and many of us were taught)
that there is no absolute truth—something that is true all the
time and everywhere whether people know it or like it. It is a rare
teenager today who has the guts and independence to say, for
example, in a high school health class that premarital sex is
wrong—wrong for everybody, not just those who think it's wrong.
Homosexual activity is wrong—wrong for everybody and not just
those who think it's wrong.

Without the conviction that there are absolutes that can be
shared and made the basis for society, the only end will be anarchy
where everyone does what is right in his own eyes. Therefore the
need for truth is a deep need of the human soul and human society.
And Jesus came into the world to say, "I am the way, the truth, and
the life" (John 14:6). And then he rose from the dead to vindicate
his claim. Jesus has a right to tell us what is absolutely true
because in the resurrection God proved him to be absolutely
true.

4/5. We Are to Be Envied

Fourth and fifth, from verse 19, instead of saying
negatively that we are not to be pitied, we can say positively that
because of the resurrection we are to be envied. Our preaching is
not in vain—it is full, meaningful, valid, valuable,
significant.

If Christ is not raised, then living for him, doing what he says,
following his will is a great delusion. We should be pitied like
insane people who live by hallucinations. But since he has been
raised and is alive and reigns as king forever, all our obedience,
all our love, all our self-denial is not just not-to-be-pitied, but
is positively enviable. "This slight
momentary affliction is
working for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison,"
Paul said (2 Corinthians 4:17).

And there is in every one of us the longing that our lives be
well spent—that our lives count for something, that they have
significance and usefulness, that we don't come to the end of our
days and say, it was all in vain, empty, pointless, useless,
insignificant—pitiable.

Paul knows this. That's why he ends this whole chapter on the
resurrection (v. 58) with the words: "Be steadfast, immovable,
always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord
your labor is not in vain."

Not in vain! That's the longing of our lives. O Lord let it not
be misspent. Let me not come to my grave and say, "I've wasted it!"
It does not have to be. Christ is risen and everything done in his
name—by his strength and for his glory—is not in vain. It is
enviable. Significant. Valuable. Eternal.

6. Those Who Have Fallen Asleep Are Alive

Finally, there is the longing that we shall live forever in
joy. That we not come to an empty end after a full and valuable
life. That we not become a zero, or worse, damned. And so Paul says
in verse 18 that because Christ is raised those who have fallen
asleep in him—those who have died in faith—have not perished. Or
positively, they are alive. They will live forever. They live the
way Christ lives. They will enter into the joy of their Master.

The Greatest News in All the World

The greatest news in all the world is that God and his Son are
most glorified in you when you are most satisfied in them. And to
make that true God raised his Son Jesus from the dead to reign forevermore.

In raising him from the dead

he gave us forgiveness and glorified Jesus as the
all-sufficient forgiver;

he gave us a friend to count on and glorified Jesus as utterly
reliable;

he gave us guidance and unchanging truth and glorified Jesus
as the absolute foundation for truth and righteousness;

he gave us a life that is not pitiable but enviable, a
ministry that is not in vain but fruitful, and glorified Jesus as
the source and goal of all life and all ministry;

and he gave us everlasting joy that will not be ended by
death, and glorified Jesus as the author of life, the victor over
death, and the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.

Therefore I urge you with all my heart this morning to lift up
your heart and say with the choirs on earth and in heaven:

Worthy is the Lamb that was slain and hath redeemed us to God by
his blood to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and
honor and glory and blessing. Amen.

John Piper (@JohnPiper) is founder and teacher of desiringGod.org and chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary. For 33 years, he served as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is author of more than 50 books.

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